Afghanistan And Drug Smuggling

PARK FOREST — I would like to take exception to your October 12 news story by Mark Fineman on the alleged morale problem of the Afghan freedom fighters. There may be morale problems and corruption in Pakistan, especially among those who have given up and removed themselves from the struggle, but this is not the case inside Afghanistan.

We are especially concerned with the allegation that the mujahadeen are involved in the heroin traffic. Mr. Fineman rightly calls attention to heroin smuggling as a major problem in the area. Opium poppies are grown in large numbers inside Afghanistan; movement of heroin across the border with Pakistan is commonplace. This cultivation and the heroin export is done with the full recognition, support and protection of the Soviet regime. Throughout the country the wheat fields are routinely firebombed; the poppy fields, however, are spared. The heroin smugglers themselves are quite separate from the fighters in the field; the smugglers are well known to be working with or paying protection to the Communist government in Kabul. Many, perhaps most of the smugglers, are believed to be agents for that government. The smugglers move in well-equipped, heavily armed groups. To say that ``rebel leaders are increasingly preoccupied by heroin smuggling`` does not fit the facts. It contradicts first-hand information received by our Committee. We have good information, on the other hand, that some Afghans have in fact been posing as majahadeen to facilitate and abet heroin smuggling. As those individuals have been identified their activites have been stopped by the mujahadeen.

In the almost six years since the Russian invasion and occupation, over 4 million Afghans have fled their country. They constitute the largest refugee population in the world. One out of two refugees in the world today are Afghans. Informed estimates place civilian deaths at considerably over one million.

The Russians and the communist government in Kabul are openly pursuing a policy of terror and torture throughout the country. Vast areas of the country, whole mountain valleys, are now desolate, without food, without any signs of life.

It should give a sense of amazement and wonder that any people could continue to resist under these conditions.